Trump’s $60M UFC Birthday Party Meets Protest Pushback

Trump’s $60 – Donald Trump is planning an exclusive, open-air UFC event on the South Lawn of the White House estimated to cost upwards of $60 million—an arrangement met by a rising chorus of artists, activists, and organizations planning a counter-programmed concert and wat

Donald Trump’s birthday party isn’t even pretending to be subtle this time.

After last year’s sparsely attended military parade on the National Mall. the White House is now preparing something far closer to spectacle: an exclusive. open-air UFC event on the South Lawn of the White House. The gathering is estimated to cost upwards of $60 million. and the president’s plan is built around one of the most attention-grabbing forms of entertainment Americans can imagine—man-on-man fighting on government grounds.

While the president and his guests are expected to enjoy the event at the White House, a new counter-program is already taking shape far from Washington. Artists and celebrities are lining up a benefit concert intended to drown out the spectacle with protest: “Rise Up Sing Out.”

The concert will take place on June 14 in New York City and will be held at Town Hall. an auditorium founded by New York suffragists in the 1920s with a capacity for 1. 500. The lineup includes headline artists and speakers including Rufus Wainwright, Bette Midler, Patti Smith, and Joy Reid. Watch parties are being planned across the county.

Ticket sales for the concert will benefit the Committee for the First Amendment. an alliance of celebrities. actors. and artists formed during the McCarthy era and brought back last year. The group was revived by actress and longtime activist Jane Fonda. Her father. the actor Henry Fonda. was a vocal opponent of the Hollywood Blacklisting conducted by the entertainment industry under pressure from the Republican anti-communist Red Scare led by former Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.).

Fonda helped found the committee as a public show of support to the “Hollywood Ten. ” 10 directors and screenwriters held in contempt by Congress after refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee. Now. with the new concert. Fonda is again framing the fight as part of a broader cultural and political struggle—one she says can’t be reduced to any single president.

Last year, at an ACLU event, Fonda announced the reformation of the committee and said the need for organized protest and participation from the arts transcended Trump, whom she describes as a fascist. “It’s not [just] Trump. If Trump died, we’d get another one,” she said.

She later added: “We’ve gone past the period of protests. I mean, it’s protests are good because they remind us that we’re not alone, but the people in the White House, they’ll just wait us out. They don’t care.”

“What we have to do now is called non-cooperation.”

The protest energy isn’t limited to the concert. The event is also being promoted by the organizers of the massive No Kings protests—demonstrations that have in the past been timed to coincide with events promoted by Trump, including his birthday parade in 2025.

Ezra Levin. co-founder of Indivisible and one of the primary organizations behind the No Kings movement. said in an explanation to Rolling Stone that. given the attention surrounding the UFC event and the fact that it will effectively be closed to the public. the coalition of activists decided to “throw in on something so people can give their attention to something else. ideally something with a pro-democracy bent.”.

Behind the scenes, the White House event is also drawing scrutiny for how it’s being shaped. In what the organizers describe as a break with longstanding tradition and the bounds of American ethics laws. the White House event will be packed with corporate sponsorships. including Crypto.com. Dodge Ram. Bud Light. and Polymarket.

The tension here is familiar to political watchers: historically. White House ethics officers have avoided the appearance that corporations can secure access to the president and government through donations and sponsorships. But the claims around these rules being “drowned in the Potomac during the Trump presidency” have become part of the public debate.

Reported attendees to the UFC event include the Trump family—Jared and Ivanka Kushner—members of Trump’s cabinet. a whole host of right wing celebrities and influencers. and hundreds of military members. provided they meet the strict physical fitness requirements set by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The fights will almost certainly take place on Sunday, but a last-ditch effort to derail the plan is already in motion. Outside of a wet and muggy forecasted weather in Washington D.C. this weekend, one organization has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to shut the whole thing down.

Levin framed the motivation behind the White House scheduling in blunt terms. “The number one thing Trump wants now, as he always wants, is all attention on him,” he said. “That’s why he’s throwing himself this birthday party. too. with a whole bunch of donors and attendants. because he’s always looking to make some money on whatever grift he’s got going on.”.

He added: “I think it’s important for us to continue to hammer the message that he clearly cares about himself and enriching himself and his buddies. If we’re going to stop him, we’ve got to focus on organizing our own communities.”

For Trump supporters and critics alike, the fight over the birthday party is now playing out on two fronts at once: a UFC event on the South Lawn, and a protest-minded, ticket-funded concert at Town Hall designed to keep attention pointed somewhere else.

Donald Trump UFC White House South Lawn birthday party protest No Kings Indivisible Ezra Levin Jane Fonda Committee for the First Amendment Hollywood Ten House Un-American Activities Committee Town Hall Crypto.com Bud Light Polymarket Pete Hegseth